MegaDots is a mature DOS braille translator with powerful features for the volume transcriber and producer. Its straightforward, style-based system and automated features let you create great braille with only a few keystrokes. Yet it is sophisticated enough to please the fussiest braille producers — you can control each step MegaDots follows to format, translate and produce braille documents. MegaDots 2.3 now has a Windows installation program that automatically installs your desktop icons and shortcuts. The headaches of installation are now gone!

News Flash: Introducing MegaDots 2.3

MegaDots 2.3 has a Windows install program. It installs all the icons, and shortcuts for you. No more installation headaches.

The question “Does MegaDots works in Windows?” is obsolete. Now MegaDots requires Windows in order to be installed!

The install program asks for your serial number and a password. No more floppy disks needed during installation.

The install program also works as a demo if a valid serial number/password is not given.

Beginner Braille and MegaMath are included at no additional charge! These two add-on features used to cost an additional $400. MegaMath includes support for chemistry symbols.

MegaDots now includes and makes use of Embossit 2.0. This unique Duxbury Systems product allows MegaDots to emboss to any Embosser that DBT 10.7 can emboss to. If you happen to own DBT 10.7, you will notice that Embossit 2.0 has the same list of configured embossers as DBT 10.7. This means you can emboss to USB devices, to network embossers, or to embossers requiring exotic Windows drivers, such as the ViewPlus Tiger series.

MegaDots 2.3 contains MegaPRN, a program that lets MegaDots 2.3 print to any Windows printer on your system. You can produce ink print output to your network printers.

MegaDots 2.3 supports the changes to the British rules, including changes to the translation to a significant number of words.

MegaDots 2.3 eliminates the crashes that occurred on Windows XP Pro with some file importations and exporting.

Dozens of other improvements.

Product Overview

New version MegaDots 2.3 is shipped on CD-ROM for easy installation. All the documentation is available from a simple menu on your browser.

Since MegaDots recognizes many file formats, you can bring in virtually any document and set it up for braille. MegaDots supports all commercial braille embossers and all modern ink print printers (except for a small group of ink print printers that are Windows-only).

Whenever you want to see how the braille looks, press the Translate key. Suddenly you’re looking at the same words, but in braille! You can jump around, edit or enter more braille. Braille entry can be done using a six-key technique, or as “Ink print in braille”, where the words you type become braille as you type them. When you are done in braille, press the Translate key once more and you return to print.

Users of voice and refreshable braille displays will appreciate interacting with software tailored for blind access. Screens are simple and free of clutter, and you don’t have to fuss around to know where you are in the software. When you move into a new area, the name of the screen is spoken, such as “Editor”, “Main menu” or “Save file help”.

For large print users, MegaDots supports popular screen enlargement programs, as well as a built-in large text mode. You’ll never have to scroll around looking for text or information that’s off the screen. All you need to see is right there in front of you.

For sighted users, MegaDots has a familiar look and feel. Pull-down menus, point and click mouse interaction and colorful screens make working fun. The braille itself can be viewed in a variety of forms, depending on what is most readable for you.

MegaDots gives you the features you expect from a modern word processor, such as macros, bookmarks, and find and replace.

Features in MegaDots 2.3

File Importer works hard so you won’t have to.

The File Importer is smarter than ever: it identifies what kind of document you’re importing (i.e., a letter, poetry, etc.) and automatically applies the appropriate styles to the imported document. This important and intuitive step minimizes the time and effort it used to take to make great braille.

MegaDots imports Windows Help Screens, which are otherwise very difficult to access with speech or refreshable braille.

For users who want total control, automatic features of the importer can be temporarily and selectively disabled.

Optically scanned documents are automatically recognized and cleaned up – before you even edit your document!

MegaDots knows that optical scanners make visual mistakes and has a system for changing nonsense back into the right words. And now, optically scanned documents are automatically recognized and cleaned up – before you even edit your document! Just import your optically scanned document, and obviously misspelled text is corrected, i.e., “farnily” is changed to “family”. Other common format errors are also fixed, such as split paragraphs and misnumbered list items.

Here’s how it works. First, the scanned document’s format is cleaned up. For example, optical scanners often break up paragraphs inappropriately or misnumber lists of items. MegaDots correctly formats these areas. It can even remove the garble that results from scanning pictures or graphics within the text. The text itself is then cleaned up, one word at a time. MegaDots will find and correct any obviously misspelled words before you even view your imported document. Running headers, footers and page numbers that occur on each page are removed and used for print page indicators in the document.

Improved Spell Checker

We’ve added over 20,000 words to the dictionary. The Spell Checker now recognizes over 110,000 words.

Large Print Features!

Create beautiful large print up to five times as tall and wide as standard fonts (up to 64 point).

MegaDots supports your printer’s scalable fonts for the most attractive possible large print.

With new large print page indicators, you’ll be able to follow page numbers from the original text.

Advanced Ink print Printing Capabilities We’re proud to present these useful features designed specifically to make learning and proofreading braille easier. And while we were at it, we threw in quite a bit for users who need high quality, customizable ink print, too.

MegaDots now supports all modern ink print printers, except for a small group that are Windows-only).

Choose from ten different kinds of ink print braille.

Make ink print braille and text on the same page in three different formats: side by side, word by word, and line by line.

Side by Side displays the braille page next to the print page on one sheet.

New Interpret Format screen shows you what’s in your document: how many and which styles it uses; whether there are tabs, running headers, or print page indicators; and other useful information. This overview helps you check the “big picture” of your document.

Make global changes to your document. For example, change all Poetry paragraphs to Body text.

Within the overview, you can ask for greater detail. For example, you can view just the poetry in your document, or all of the print page indicators.

Within one of these views, you can jump straight to that place in the text. Or, stay within the view, and make changes there.

Use Interpret Format to adjust the importation of a document. When used right after import, you can adjust MegaDots’ document cleanup, how MegaDots selects styles and what import features or styles to use while importing.

Easy Table Formatting! We have worked with the pickiest braille transcribers to revamp our table formatting.

MegaDots follows all of the new BANA and British table rules.

MegaDots will automatically squeeze the table to fit on the braille page.

If you braille table is too wide for the braille page, MegaDots can put it on two facing pages.

Column Blocking lets you cut and paste entire columns.

Format your word list in columns with Make Clipboard Columns. This feature now lets you choose the number of columns you want to generate.

MegaDots now handles diacritics. MegaDots now supports all of the diacritical marks shown in the textbook format codebook. This speeds up another laborious aspect of making braille.

Does MegaDots Do Windows?

Yes, even though MegaDots 2.3 is still an MS-DOS application. MegaDots works with Windows 98, ME, 2000, NT, XP, and Vista.

Can MegaDots bring in files from Microsoft Word? Yes. However, until recently MegaDots did not bring in files from recent versions of Word, specifically files from Word 97 and Word 8. Beginning with version 2.02, MegaDots imports these files very well, as long as you are working on a Windows 98 or higher system (and you are not running in MS-DOS mode).

If a blind person uses mainly Windows applications on their computer, can they use MegaDots with voice or refreshable Braille access? Yes. JAWS works in DOS applications. We have included a set of MegaDots script files, for use with JFW 3.0 or higher.

Can MegaDots print through Windows? We have greatly simplified the process of printing braille from MegaDots through Windows.

How Do People Use MegaDots?

Large braille production services use MegaDots to produce braille textbooks efficiently for blind students. The program’s speed lets them move through a great amount of material in a short time.

Elementary school students as young as third grade are using MegaDots to make braille and to learn about computers.

Teachers find MegaDots helpful in quickly getting braille to their blind students. There are exercise and directions styles for making exams and worksheets in MegaDots.

MegaDots is used by several deaf-blind persons as their main reading and writing tool.

Blind computer programmers use MegaDots to make computer program listings in braille.

Volunteer transcriber groups use MegaDots in a variety of ways–both for translation and for 6-key direct entry of braille.

Schools and transcribers use MegaDots to make grade one braille in Spanish, French, German, Italian, and Portuguese.

Why Upgrade?

If you are a braille transcriber, and want the new table rules, diacritics, and all the new features and bug fixes in MegaDots designed for transcribers.

If you want better braille when you send a file through MegaDots without any checking or any fixing up.

If you want to reduce your workload when you take scanned material into MegaDots.

If you want large print from MegaDots.

If you want a greater variety of ink print layout and control with MegaDots.

Pricing

Description

Item No.

Price

Megadots Version 2.3

SWMDOTS

£385.00

Upgrade Prior version of MegaDots (within 3 years) to current MegaDots (version 2.3)

SWMDOTS/U

£139.00

Upgrade Prior version of MegaDots (more than 3 years) to current MegaDots (version 2.3)